Transfers & Finding Someone in Ohio (ODRC)

Key info

The dividing line is the offense. A felony sentence to state prison — generally more than a year — places a person in ODRC custody; pretrial detention and short or misdemeanor sentences are served in a county jail run by a sheriff.

New arrivals go through a reception center for medical, mental-health, and security and program classification, then transfer to a permanent prison.

Reception centers are sorted by county and sex — men from most of Ohio go to the Correctional Reception Center (CRC) in Orient; men from Stark, Summit, and Cuyahoga counties go to Lorain Correctional Institution in Grafton; women go to the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.

Find someone with the ODRC Offender Search (by name or number); county-jail inmates are on the sheriff’s roster, and federal prisoners are in the Bureau of Prisons locator.

State prison or county jail

Whether someone is in an ODRC state prison or a county jail depends on the case. A felony sentence to state prison — generally more than a year — places a person in ODRC custody. Pretrial detention and short or misdemeanor sentences are served in a county jail run by one of Ohio’s 88 county sheriffs — not ODRC, and not in the ODRC locator. Each jail sets its own visiting, mail, phone, and money rules; this guide and the Ohio guides cover the ODRC state system.

Reception and classification

After sentencing, a person is taken from the county jail to an ODRC reception center for medical, mental-health, and security and program classification, then transfers to a permanent prison. Which reception center depends on county and sex:

Men, most counties: the Correctional Reception Center (CRC) in Orient.
Men from Stark, Summit, and Cuyahoga counties: Lorain Correctional Institution in Grafton.
Women: the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.

Finding someone

State prisoners appear in the ODRC Offender Search, which searches by name or number. Ohio has no statewide county-jail locator — a person in a county jail is found through that specific county sheriff’s jail roster, or by calling that jail. Federal prisoners are in the Bureau of Prisons locator.

Transfers and current location

ODRC does not generally notify families when a person is transferred between prisons. Check the Offender Search for the current location. This also matters because the visiting application and the visit reservation are tied to the specific facility, so the current prison determines where the application goes and where the reservation is made.

Verify Before Acting

Check the ODRC Offender Search first; if the person is not listed, they may be in a county jail — there is no statewide county-jail locator, so check the specific county sheriff’s roster or call that jail, and check the Bureau of Prisons locator for federal custody. Expect a newly sentenced person to pass through a reception center — CRC in Orient for men from most counties, Lorain in Grafton for men from Stark, Summit, and Cuyahoga counties, and the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville for women — before moving to a permanent prison, with visiting restricted during reception. Because ODRC does not generally notify families of transfers, confirm the current location on the Offender Search before traveling and before sending a visiting application or making a reservation, since both are tied to the specific facility.

Sources

This page is compiled from the following publicly available sources. Policies change without notice — confirm current details with the facility before relying on them.